Review Shiv Crew by Laken Cane

 Rune Alexander wants to get through her days doing her job, which is protecting the humans against the myriad of supernatural creatures, known as Others, who exist uneasily in a human's world. 

But she is unstable and damaged. She realizes how broken she is even as she continues to submit to the unspeakable things her lover does to her, craving desperately the strange peace she finds in the aftermath.

When she discovers things are not as they seem and a faceless human is torturing the supernatural groups in her city, she and her crew must break the rules and begin to protect the Others from the humans. 

But as the darkness inside her becomes stronger and she ends up on the wrong side of a battle she must not lose, who will save Rune from herself?

Laken Cane

 I live in Ohio and I write urban fantasy. Laken Cane is a new pseudonym for me--I also write erotic paranormal romance for publishers like Loose Id, Ellora's Cave, and Liquid Silver Books under a different pen name.

Shiv Crew is my first book as Laken, and I've never been as satisfied writing as I am with this series. I have a sort of end game planned for the crew, but I have no idea how many books it will take to get there. I'm having too much fun with them to think about ending them!

I do have plans to bring in a new character for one book, just so she can eventually get her own series when (or maybe before) the Rune Alexander series ends. That's the plan.

Besides writing--when I have time to do something other than write or read--I play the heck out of my Playstation 4, my Nintendo 3DS XL, and occasionally I find time to play my Xbox 360 or Wii U. Yes. I have a sickness.

I also drink coffee. Lots and lots of coffee. But I have been trying to dilute all that coffee with some green tea. Decaf green tea. That makes up for all the caffeinated black coffee, right? Yeah. That's what I thought.

What quirks do I have? Hmmm. The word "quirks" makes it sound so cute. I don't swallow pills. I chew them. Yes, I chew them. Tylenol, vitamins, doesn't matter. Even if I crush it and put it in ice cream first, I still chew. I chew ice cream. For some reason, people seem to think that's weird. I don't get it.

One of my favorite authors is Stephen King. That man can tell a story.

I'm obsessed with vanilla bean lotion from Bath and Body Works, journals, electric blankets, and ink pens. And electronics, coffee, and books. And pizza. And any candy that has peanut butter in it.

I'm something of a hermit, but I don't feel that makes me weird. I don't like the sun on my face and I can't stand the scent of garlic. Maybe I'm part vampire. Maybe. Quirky. Just quirky.

Math and bugs are two things I don't like. At all. I always have a calculator handy and I scream when I see bugs. I've been known to set off the security alarm when I spotted a spricket in my house.

Shudder.

A little about my past: I grew up in the country with six siblings. We went to church. A lot. Pentecostal. There were nightly episodes of speaking in tongues, singing and dancing, and the casting out of demons. As a child, I wasn't real sure if those demons were going to leave their hosts and set up residence inside me, so that made for plenty of nightmares!

We had no TV for much of my childhood. Books were everything to me. I was only allowed certain books, so the others--the good ones--I had to sneak and read. I did a lot of sneaking! I read everything I could get my hands on. Didn't matter what it was, I'd read it. I was not a fan of school.

When I was very small, my main goal was to grow up and eat all the ice cream sandwiches and potato chips I could hold.

Then I grew up and decided they had too many calories. Sigh.

I was lucky enough to be a mother to two truly amazing children, a son and a daughter. My little girl was born with a variety of severe health issues, and on a bleak December day in 2009, I lost her.

I write.

Little things--

I'm a lefty. I'm a pretty terrible driver--possibly because I get lost in daydreams and stories and forget I'm driving. I'm very short. I can't sleep without a fan.

 Fans of Laurell K. Hamilton will love this book. This story was amazing. It grasped me in it’s clutches from the first page and didn’t let go until I had read the last page. The protagonist is a woman named Rune Alexander. In one word, she’s a badass. At first glance, she’s a tough as nails, strong, independent woman. Then you find out that she’s in an abusive relationship and it really makes you wonder why. She may be strong, but she has some dark monsters that she feels she has to be punished for. Rune runs the Shiv Crew, their motto is to protect humans from the Others; vampires, werewolves, ghouls, etc. The whole crew was pretty amazing, including Ellie, Rune’s gay best friend. He provided some comic relief in the midst of a pretty dark book. The antagonists are a group of “Dark Others”, paranormals that are rogue, and Church of Slayers (COS). COS seems like a pretty bad group, but I can’t wait to see what kind of trouble they stir up for Rune and the gang in the next book. All in all, I thought this book was pretty amazing.

Ashley gave Shiv Crew

 

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